something you like, you always feel that you have to eat all
you can hold of it. Don't starve yourself now--just eat a good meal,
and stop before you get so full that you feel as if you couldn't eat
another mouthful."

"I guess he never gets enough to eat except when he's out this way,"
said Harry Norman, beneath his breath.

Jack Danby heard him and was furious, but he restrained himself,
although an attack on his friend angered him more than a similar remark
aimed at himself would have done.

"I don't want any more trouble with you, Norman," he said very quietly,
taking the rich boy aside. "But don't say that sort of thing around
here. Remember that you're a guest, and that Pete is one of your hosts
and helped to pay for the spread that you're going to enjoy."

"Mind your own business!" said Norman, rudely. "I didn't say anything
about you. I will if you don't look out--I'll tell them you haven't
got any right to your name, and that you don't know who your father and
mother were!"

Jack bit his lips and clenched his fists for a moment, but he
controlled himself, and managed to let the insult pass by without
giving Norman the thrashing he deserved.

After lunch, when the mess had been cleared away, the dishes had been
washed and everything had been made neat and orderly, the championship
game between the Raccoons and the Crows was called.

There was quite a crowd out to see this game. Boys from the
neighborhood, attracted by the prowess of the rival pitchers, turned
out in good numbers. Many of Lawrence's school friends were also on
hand, and practically every boy employed in the office with Pete and
Jack was on hand, ready to yell his head off for the success of the
Crows. The defeated Whip-poor-wills were anxious for the Crows to win,
for the Raccoons had taunted them unmercifully on the poor showing they
had made in their second game, and they wanted to see the team that had
beaten them so badly humiliated in its turn. So the crowd of Crow
rooters was a little the larger, and if Jack Danby could win this game,
his victory was certain to be a popular one, at least. But few
thought that he would have a chance against the clever and experienced
Lawrence.

"I've got an idea that the best way to beat Lawrence is to let him beat
himself," said Jack Danby to Bob Hart before the game. "He knows how
to pitch two good curves, and he's been striking out ten and twelve
fellows in every game he played jus